Murray motors on

Football writer with The Age

Two to go: Andy Murray took less than two hours to beat Frenchman Jeremy Chardy in their quarter-final on Wednesday. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

ANDY Murray was on his way to the ice baths, the media room, the practice court, dinner and then bed. He planned to turn on the television for just a few minutes in between. If Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga happened to play for four or five hours, he shrugged.

There are some good things about playing tennis during the day rather than at night, which Murray has become used to in the past week and a half. Getting done before your next opponent. Getting done long before your next opponent. It took Murray less than two hours to beat Jeremy Chardy yesterday, and he was on his way out to Hisense Arena by the time Federer and Tsonga were warming up.

The hit on Hisense was Murray's way of getting ready for Friday's semi-final, which will be his first match under lights for the tournament. Not that he really, he said, had any major problems with the schedule. ''The scheduling for me is part and parcel of playing in really any tennis tournament. It's tough to make the schedule perfect for every single player,'' Murray said.

''I'll go out and hit balls on Hisense tonight under the lights. I'll do the same tomorrow, and that's it. If I was the tournament director or the referee or whoever decides the schedule, I also would have put Federer against Tsonga on as the night match tonight because it's the best match of the day.

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''So I have no complaints about the schedule at all, and I didn't complain about it the other day. I was asked a question about the schedule. I said that sometimes it works in your favour and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes you have to make adjustments. That's why tonight, rather than going and watching this match, I'll go out and hit some balls under the lights to be as best prepared as possible.''

The numbers say Murray beat Chardy easily. He won 6-4, 6-1, 6-2. He won more points, from the baseline and at the net. He served better. He forced more break points and he won more of them. What they don't explain was how he shot to a 4-0 lead, seemingly in minutes. They don't capture how, stuck right up against the net, off balance, he turned a wide circle, made it back to the baseline and scrambled a lob that somehow landed in, despite being so far ahead that he could probably have taken a point off.

The things his opponent was able to muster - a break back early in the first set, then … that was probably it - only seemed to nudge Murray into a new gear. He finished the match off as quickly as he started it. Chardy played well, and felt that way afterwards. But there was a sense of bewilderment, on the court and after the match, about what he could or should have done. His confusion was perhaps summed up in the last point of the second set: a Chardy double fault, the serve whacked wide off a wayward, wobbly ball toss and the set gone. He netted seemingly simple volleys after hitting amazing shots that Murray was able to chase down and somehow get back. ''I try many things but no chance for me,'' Chardy said. ''It's tough to lose with no solution.''

If Murray has played a better match this tournament, he couldn't remember it. He looked fast, strong, assured and so smart. He looked like he was in a hurry. Chardy didn't allow his erratic self to emerge too many times, but he suffered almost every time that it did. Murray didn't really make a bad decision all day. The thought that he might have won too easily didn't appeal to him at all.

''For me, I mean, today was a decent test. Really the last match was the one that was kind of a tough one just because, you know, normally against [Gilles] Simon, it's a lot of long rallies and it's a tough match against him. It was just kind of a nothing match,'' Murray said. ''There was nothing really going on. There was no real atmosphere between us on the court. That was a tough match for me. But, you know, who knows. … I can't be disappointed about being in the semis of a slam without dropping a set.''